Word: sofaer
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...argument for the increased use of antiterrorist force is its deterrent effect. Secretary of State George Shultz outlined the rationale most bluntly in October 1984 when he declared, "We cannot allow ourselves to become the Hamlet of nations, worrying endlessly over whether and how to respond." In July, Abraham Sofaer, the State Department's legal adviser, told a meeting of the American Bar Association in London, "The groups that are responsible for attacking us in Lebanon, El Salvador and elsewhere have openly announced their intention to keep on trying to kill Americans. To the extent that they are state-supported...
...about an undeclared war? That raises the problem of the legitimacy of the war itself. Abraham Sofaer, former legal counsel to the State Department, and others advance this argument: Article 51 of the United Nations Charter recognizes the right of self-defense against armed attack, not only for the victim nation but also for others coming to its aid. Kuwait has appealed for help under Article 51, and the U.N. Security Council has in effect underwritten that appeal by passing resolutions condemning Iraq. Thus the U.S. could legitimately strike Iraq and exercise all the rights of a belligerent, including...
Nonetheless, a subdued hope of movement surrounded the news last week that the U.S. had consented to repay $567 million in frozen Iranian assets. The agreement was reached after two days of negotiations between State Department legal adviser Abraham Sofaer and a senior adviser to Iran's President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. The two met in the Hague, site of the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal that was set up as part of the 1981 deal that freed the 62 American embassy hostages in Tehran. Both sides agreed that Iran will be paid most of the balance remaining...
...been paid out. Tehran wanted the balance, now about $820 million, that remained of the $1.4 billion the account originally held. In 1987 the Reagan Administration had unsuccessfully resisted a similar $500 million claim by Iran against a different account. This time the Bush Administration responded by dispatching Sofaer to the Hague. As part of the deal that was eventually reached, Iran agreed that $243 million from the account will be transferred to a third fund, covering claims against Iran by individual American citizens and corporations...
However, the real roots of the assassination ban are American and idealistic, not worldly and cynical. Assassination, said Secretary of State George Shultz, defending the ban after the Libya bombing, "doesn't fit our way of thinking on how to do things." Legal adviser Sofaer says, "Americans have a distaste for official killing, and especially for the intentional killing of specific individuals...